When One Is a Scouting Group Leader
by JumperRedHead
Summary: When John and his crew-Elijah, David, and Matt- go onto a scouting trip to get Orcs, they experience an adventure on steroids. In this certain adventure John realizes what it means to have friends. Join in this humorous yet angsty story, and you'll be certain to enjoy! NO SLASH One-shot.


WHOA.

"John, John, John Wake-up John" Says a voice. "Wake-up John" It says again. "Wha'?" I say. "Wake-up John We're Leaving" says the voice.

The voice belongs to Dave. We are four scouts for the army of Gondor. There is me, John, Dave, Matt, and Elijah.

I have a scraggly beard faintly red, faintly red hair, brown eyes, a mole on my left cheek, and a suit of armor. I have a temper which goes over Middle-Earths Skies when Elijah or Dave almost gets themselves killed. I have a small sense of humor and tolerance. I am the leader of our troop. I like a lot of action in what I do, and hate it when Elijah fools around. Dave is the one if I have to throw one out of the troop. I have a girlfriend.

Dave has a black beard, hazel eyes, a mustache that is black, and chainmail and leather, and black hair. Dave… has a temper. The smallest things will annoy him, and he ends up snapping at whoever is closest to him. There is a reason why we all keep our distance. He is also very _loud. _He stomps around when we are hiking, scaring away any game, and when he whispers, it's like whisper-shouting. Our troop is banned from sneak attacks now, because of an incident I'd rather not discuss. He is very out-spoken, and cannot hold his tongue. But, on the other hand, he is very witty and intelligent and very useful in a pickle.

Matt has no beard, blue eyes, brown hair, and a suit of armor. He was a shy sort of person, almost cute in a way. He is very picky, and is a worry-wart _entirely. _It is a _wonder _he has a girl. How he managed to become a part of the army, I have no idea. He is very sweet, and probably the least annoying in the group, for one, he doesn't _flirt with every girl he meets, _or _ruin every single sneak attack. _He is tense most of the time, and only relaxes when he is around his girlfriend. He is the medic of out group, so he doesn't do much of the fighting. This is a lucky coincidence. He is very skilled as a doctor, and is very useful, especially when Elijah or Dave decides to do something stupid, which happens a little _too _often.

Elijah has a small amount of stubble, big blue eyes, and shaggy-ish brown hair. He has a smattering of freckles, and was wearing a suit of-what _was _that?-silvery metal. It almost appears to be glowing. _Glowing. _ Elijah was a sort of bouncy-ish person, always seeing the bright side of things, with a nice amount of humor. He is sort of cautious around things, but still outgoing. He eats _a lot, _but was still skinny as a twig. Where did he _put _all that? It wasn't even _healthy, _it was mostly _French fries. _He is a terrible flirt, might I add. With my _girlfriend. _He is very out-there, and unafraid of what to do. This helps us a lot, but is also one of the causes of why we aren't out on the front line right now. He has a new girlfriend every week.

"Wakey, wakey! You're the only reason that we haven't eaten yet!" And that would be Elijah.

"Be quiet Elijah I Just woke-up." I say. "So we are 'being nice' to you, we are not screaming. That should count for something." says Elijah annoyingly. "Start cooking guys." I announce. I am suddenly starved. Why did they eat so much? There was never enough left for me, the captain, who had to eat last. "We already cooked but its cold so we are going to—"

"Just do it. Please." I interrupted. Dave rolls his eyes for the one-thousandth time. They put the chicken in a pot of boiling water for five minutes.

"Why do you boil chicken?" I say, perplexed. "Why not fry it? Or bake it… not that that's an option…" "Because! We like to try something new every day—" "And Elijah would just burn it." David cuts in. "Ah," I say, understanding. The chicken appeared already burned, but I decide to let it slide. "You burnt it the first time!" Elijah protests. I roll my eyes at their bantering, and turn to Matt. He was still asleep, curled on his pad. What. The. Heck.

"Would someone explain why _he _is still asleep, and I'm not?" Elijah seems to notice Matt for the first time. "Oh, yeah. Him! Michael, or whatever!" I glower as David tries to hush Elijah. "_Matt. _Are you telling me you forgot a fellow soldier?" Captain John is coming out. And he was not nice. Elijah finally seems to notice his mistake and tries to cover for it. "Well, he never talks and—"

"We're sorry, Captain." David interrupts Elijah again. "Good. Now wake him up," I order. One thing to enjoy about being a captain. Elijah sighs in relief. "Oh, good. No punishment. It'd take a feather landing on his armored back to wake him up," he brushes his brown hair from his eyes and gently shakes Matt, waking him instantly. "Good." I say. "Now, Matt, eat quickly, we need to get back to Gondor immediately."

When we take the chicken out of the pot, it is steaming, so we let it cool for a minute or two, and then we dig in. It tasted horrible, I blame Elijah. Soon after, we pack up our belongings, and head toward the white city of Gondor. We reach the edge of Mirkwood, and, taking a deep breath, I enter, the rest following. "Ssssssssshhhhhh," I say. "This is dangerous, this is no time to fool around." WE continue through the wood like that, in complete silence, before we hear a voice. "How much more bread do we have left?" it says.

"Fifteen loaves left." says another voice. We freeze in our tracks. This must be the group of Orcs that had attacked the village near our campsite. "Orcs! Get ready men," I whisper. We sneak through the bushes until we are in front of their camp. I am about to tell them that the plan was to have a sneak attack, and to kill them quickly and quietly, when David yells, "KILL THEM!" I slap my face so hard it it hurt. "This is why we got kicked of the sneak attack team, David." I hear Elijah tell David.

"Well, I didn't ruin one by kissing the enemy leader's DAUGHTER!"

"Oi! I bought us a peace treaty with that!"

"Both of you shut up! We are in the middle of an attack, and you need to stop bickering!"I yell. "Fine." They both say.

Before the Orcs get over their shock, I order them quickly and efficiently. "Draw your bows." We all draw our bows and I kneel down for Matt so he does not shoot me in the head. "Fire." We all shoot our bows and kill four orcs.

"Fire at will." I yell.

We each shoot three and kill six orcs, as they charge towards us, bows and swords raised. I draw my sword and charge the orcs. I hack and slash the orcs and they put up a fight. Soon, though, we begin to tire. Dave is shot and wounded in the arm. Matt takes him into the makeshift "infirmary". Otherwise known as a small patch of dirt. I cut off the heads of three orcs. I turn around and look at Dave, he may annoy me, but I still care, and I get shot in the shoulder. As I fall to my knees I take out the arrow and shoot it at a random orc. Matt yells at me for being stupid. "IDIOT! Get your _arse _over here now!" I ignore him and keep slashing with my sword. I turn around to get more Orcs,) and I get shot again in the leg.

I gasp in pain and limp over to the patch of dirt, and as Matt tends to my wounds, I realize something. Elijah is the only one on the field now.

"Matt, I need to get back on the field so Elijah doesn't die." I whimper. "No I need to take care of your wounds." Matt argues. I ignore him, getting up and into the battle. "Get your stupid arse over here!" Matt yells. I turn around to look at Matt and David is shot in the neck. A pang goes through my heart. I can't let the same thing happen to Elijah. Good, cheery Elijah. I brush away the tears in my eyes. I turn and hack and slash at orcs.

Suddenly, I hear a bone-chilling scream. I turn around to find a particularly big Orc holding something up for the others to see. I squint. It is Matt's head. I scream also, a charge over to the Orc, challenging him. I will hold _his _head up for the others to see. Someone grabs my arm. It is a weak grip, and that's what startles me into turning around. It is Elijah.

He is pale, so much different than his usual tan complexion. His arm is curled protectively around his abdomen, where the cloth is a dark red. He is bent over in pain, but he is looking up at me with those big blue eyes of his. "Elijah," I whisper. I quickly kneel down next to him, laying the younger man in my lap. He is barely twenty-one years old. I am almost forty. I should have died first. But he is not dead yet. He smiles up at me, a ghost of his usual grin. "Well, this was certainly a way to die," a tear falls from my cheek before I can stop it. His eyes are tearing up too. "I don't want to die," the smile is gone. "I know," I whisper. "I am scared." He states. He then looks me in the eyes. "Please tell my family I love them, I never said good-bye." And the joyful light left his eyes at last. I choke back a sob, and gently shut his eyelids.

I lay him down and cry. That is, until the Orc decided to attack me. "Alright, you've had your fun," it says. I twitch and turn and slash his head off. I slash anything in my angry path. I am slashing so hard that I think my sword will break. A shock of pain goes through me. An arrow goes through my spinal cord. I turn around to see my attacker, but instead receive a sword in my chest. I gasp audibly. I fall to my knees, and take panicked breaths. I feel as if I am suffocating. Suddenly, the pain ends, everything is black.

"John. _John. _John! JOHN! Wake up! I may have possibly disabled your alarm clock and forgot to set mine and you're my ride to campus and please don't kill me John!" "Wha'?" I still feel like I am suffocating. "Get your head out of the pillow and look at me!" Oh. I raise my head up and look around. I am in my college dorm. I am no longer forty. And, most importantly, there is a nervous Elijah standing next to my bed. "I know today we had exams! But I don't know why I did that and we're late so you need to hurry and—"

Goodness, did I miss that rambling. A wide grin breaks out on my face. "It's fine," I say. I have never wanted to be with my friends more in my life. A good dream'll do that to ya. "Now," I say to Elijah's shocked face. "Let's get to class." He's lucky I slept with my clothes on.

When we reach campus, David and Matt are waiting for us. Finally I give in to my wants, and pull them all into a great group hug. "I missed you guys." "Geez," says David, wriggling out of my grasp. "It's only been a night." He heads to Law and Order. Elijah only hugs me back, and Matt walks away eventually for medical class. I only grin wider when Elijah leaves for a date with the new girl he likes. Who knew I liked them so much?

**Eamarszalek0822- See how much you actually love your friends? How would you feel if your normally annoying friends all died? This was really fun to write, the humor and the angst!**

**JumperRedHead- Eamarszaleko822 did a lot of this writing so check out her stories and check out my other one too im updating it soon. Hope you liked it!**


End file.
